Project Happiness documented an expedition to Montana, often called the last frontier, to meet cowboys who maintain a traditional and arduous way of life defined by a unique understanding of freedom and responsibility. The host, Giuseppe, embarked on this mission to find the keepers of ancient secrets and extraordinary lives, asking them the most important question of all: "What is happiness for you?".
The journey began near Yellowstone National Park, which Project Happiness described as one of the few places on Earth where humans "cannot fool themselves into thinking they are in charge". Opened in 1872, Yellowstone was the world’s first national park, symbolizing the revolutionary idea of protecting, rather than exploiting, nature. The immense 9,000 square kilometer area is home to grizzly bears, wolves, bald eagles, and about 5,000 bison, the last descendants of the millions that once roamed the prairies. Observing the bison crossing the roads as if they still own the land—which they do—is like witnessing a scene unchanged for centuries, confirming that the land here remains "eternal, wild, free".
The cowboy way of life, dating back to the early nineteenth century, required poor young men, often of African American, Native, or Mexican origin, to move huge herds of cattle along great trails, spending weeks alone, always armed to defend the herds. Hollywood later romanticized the cowboy into an invincible, cool, lone hero, but Project Happiness found the truth to be "much less romantic". A real cowboy does not participate in gunfights; he builds fences, cares for animals, and faces the daily reality of loneliness, exhaustion, and cold.
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In Montana, where there are more cows than people, thousands of cowboys still work, living a hard life where only the horse, the land, and instinct matter. Project Happiness visited the ranch of Warren Johnson, a legendary cowboy inducted into the Hall of Fame. Warren emphasized that the horse is the most important tool a cowboy possesses; without a good one, a person is "almost useless" in the mountains. The most difficult art is learning to understand a horse without needing to speak.
Warren demonstrated that when a colt willingly gives up its feet—its means of protection—the cowboy has gained its trust and become its friend. This is a pact of cooperation: the cowboy asks the horse for help in his work, promising to feed and treat it well in return. It is a bond of trust, not submission; the rider becomes part of the horse’s herd and the leader it chooses to follow.
This bond is essential as a cowboy must be a vet, a farrier, and a carpenter all at once. Warren’s grandson, Peter, explained that the job is far from pretty, involving chores like "picking up manure, shoveling out the barn," and working "pretty dang hard". However, the most beautiful part of the job is the ability to be truly "away," where "No one can text you. No one can call you," leaving the cowboy to worry only about himself, his animals, and his companions. Warren himself experienced the crucial importance of this partnership when a grizzly bear attacked him in 2015. He survived because his horse, Spider, which had sharp shoes for the ice, kicked the bear and pulled it off him, allowing Warren to shoot the bear when it returned "this time to kill".
The fundamental motivation for this life is freedom. Warren stated he had the "greatest childhood" because, despite being "so poor," he and his siblings "had freedom," roaming the mountains on horseback all day. He believes that "Having freedom and being poor is greater than being rich and tied down". For Warren, freedom means being able to "get on a horse right here, right now and I can ride for maybe 300 miles and not open a gate, not cross a road".
However, Project Happiness concluded that cowboys define freedom not as doing whatever you want, but as responsibility. In a place where "the Earth is the only one that sets the rules," freedom means taking care of something that doesn't belong to you but would fall apart without you. Warren stressed that a real cowboy "never quit[s] their job" and unsaddles their horse first before taking care of themselves. The most important lesson is to respect Mother Nature; if you try to fight her, she "is going to kill you," so you must flow with her. For the cowboys featured by Project Happiness, freedom "is not going far away. It is feeling that you have already arrived".
